Edmunds County Tribune -

Ipswich split two recent varsity volleyball matches to finish their regular-season schedule. The Tigers lost a 3-0 home court outcome to Herreid/Selby Area last Monday, but won a closely contested 3-2 match versus North Central a night later in Roscoe.

The first two scores of the latter were 25-18, 25-18 in favor of the hosts, but guess what Ipswich wasn't quite ready to make the short trip back to town. The Tigers would win three straight sets 25-12, 25-18 and 16-14 in the tie-breaker.

Marley Guthmiller was one reason for their win. She unofficially included 24 kills among her 70 accurate hits. And Kaylin Onken went 29-35 with nine kills at the net where the Tigers went 124-144 with 47 kills. The Thunder were 136-161 and included 32 kills. They were led by Amree VanderVorst at 40-43 with 11 kills.

Ipswich got things going with 119 sets that included 45 assists. They were led by Josie Knutson at 109-111 with 37 assists. (The hosts had 182 sets without a miss, led by Sydney Bertsch at 138-138 with 25 assists.)

Ipswich also did some damage at the service lines that night, going 88-95 with 12 aces. Guthmiller went 21-23 there and featured five aces. And Natalie Crissman was 11-14 with two aces. The Thunder had 78 accurate serves with 12 aces led by VanderVorst at 16-17 with three aces.

Ipswich collected 90 digs led by Kathryn Kilber with 27 and Charli Rawden with 18. (The Thunder had 90 digs led by Jenisa Jacobs with 29.)

Crissman added three blocks and Jalyssa Hutson one block. The Thunder also utilized four blocks.

Meanwhile Ipswich would give Herreid/Selby Area something to worry about by surviving an Ipswich rally. Those scores were indeed 25-11, 25-21 and 25-23 all in favor of the Wolverines.

But Ipswich was unofficially 51-81 in hitting and included 18 kills. Guthmiller finished 28-36 at the net with 11 kills followed by Onken at 22-27 with five kills. The visitors were 87-103 at the net with 21 kills.

The Tiger were 72-82 in setting up their attack with 16 assists led by Knutson at 64-73 with 15 assists.

In serving Ipswich landed 42 serves that included four aces. Gracyn Kadlec and Tristan Geditz were each 6-7 at the service lines with one ace apiece. The Wolverines would answer with a 53-62 performance at the lines that featured nine aces.

Ipswich came away with 46 digs paced by Kilber with 14 and Guthmiller with 11. The HSA defensive effort featured 64 digs, though. Guthmiller had one solo block and one assisted while Crissman added one assist.

Ipswich coach Trent Osborne was pleased with Ipswich's progress and the support of Tiger fans. "People don't always understand how much player attitude and team momentum can be influenced by bench and crowd energy."

He says that the Tiger girls have really battled over the last few weeks capped by their come back win over North Central. "After getting down two games to 0 they came roaring back and used the openings the Thunder gave them to build some momentum early in game 3 which powered them through games 3 and 4," he said. "Then being down 14-12 in deciding game 5 they scored four straight points to pull off the victory to end the regular season."

Osborne said that their victory was certainly a team effort: "All the girls contributed whether they were on the court or not. The kids played amazingly, the bench was energized and the crowd was into it."